Introduction
This is an RPG about METAL. It will be filled with insiders about guitars, and metal, and more metal. This is the official production thread... as of now it is lacking a lot of information, information that will be added frequently. Also, this is a single player game. Sorry if you like multi player, but this game is for single people to play by themselves. I am aiming to have the gameplay run up to or even over 10 hours.

Story
What happened? What is this place? Everything is so different here. These people don't even know what a guitar is? Somebody tell what is going on. And by the way, my neck is sore from headbanging.

Mitch finds himself in the town of Gothenburg, this is quite some time in the future, the world hasn't been the same since the 2012 disaster. Why me? What do they want with me? Something strange is definitely going on in this place, do I really owe my life to these people?

The Hero

Mitch - Marine/Jimmy Marine - This is the hero of the story. Who is he? He barely knows himself. At the age of 19, he is an avid Metal fan who loves to play guitar. He begins his journey while mysteriously appearing in a small town located in Sweden. He uses his guitar as a weapon to fend off the creatures of this strange new land. His knowledge of the many genres of Metal help him to master his Riffing and Soloing techniques. (Skills and Spells)

Terrain
This will be my first map where I use extended terrain. I'm excited. I've already created some unique places with extended terrain and I'm quite happy with it. This game will use Ex. Terrain moderately, but definitely enough to notice. It's a jungle map. My progress on the map's terrain is about 50%.

Areas
There will be many unique areas as you may expect from an RPG. There is only one major town.

Gothenburg- People familiar with Metal will recognize the name. Gothenburg was a big scene for Melodic Death Metal in the 90's. The city has been reduced to a town after some tragedy. The game takes place quite some time after the monumental disaster in 2012, so the world is quite different. Brad, Jerry, And Rachel all live here and there will be many quests available here as the game progresses. There is also an Alter of Metal Gods just outside the Town.

Mountain Pass- This is a series of valleys and mountains lined with puzzles and traps and dangerous beasts. Rumor has it that there is an entrance to the Legendary Temple at the peak.

Legendary Temple- Very important item in here, but you will probably have to fight a boss or two to claim it.

Cavern of Reason- A small cavern. Inside is the power source for the magic field preventing you from crossing Lake Bodom.

Lake Bodom- This is an area that you will visit towards the end of the game. There is an Alter of Metal Gods on one shore and the entrance to the Halls of Awaiting on the other. Mitch will find himself fighting past Beach Terrors and traps to get to the other side of the lake.

Halls of Awaiting- One of the final areas you will visit. This place is pretty crazy like a maze, only with deadly creatures and traps in it. So, it's more like a labyrinth. There's no telling for sure, but an epic boss battle will probably take place near the end of the Halls.

NPC's

Brad - He is the guy who rescued you, and he seems to be calling all the shots in this Town. He is a busy guy who doesn't really like to hold a conversation.

Jerry - The typical old guy of the game. For some reason, he seems to understand you a lot better than anyone else around here. Too bad he is a little weird with those creatures he keeps as pets.

Rachel - I hear she's hot. Perhaps there will be a sex scene.

Quests
Another requirement for a good RPG. I'm going to try to make the quests unique, and some even.... fun!? Maybe, if it's not too crazy.

Items
Items are broken up into four different categories: Key Items, Collectables, Usable Items, and finally Quest Items. Items play a big role in this game. Here is a list of the different Item's I have so far:

Wallet - This thing holds your ID and your cash. Very useful.
Electric Guitar - Mitch's Guitar. Very durable.
Guitar of Legend - Mythical Guitar that never goes out of tune.
Relic of Shred - Pending.
Relic of Brutality - Brutally owns monsters that are not worth your time. Monsters that get brutally owned by this Relic will not give your Experience.
Relic of Inspiration - This relic does two things. The first is increase the maximum Inspiration you can have by 10. The second is that it actually will increase the rate at which u gain Inspiration.

Strings - People usually give you strings if you help them out. Afterall, you are the only one walking around with a guitar. It's not like anyone else can use the damn things. The amount of strings you have is tracked by your minerals, and they can be used at a Guitar Smith to upgrade the power and durability of your guitar. [Attack and Armor Ups]
Cash - Plan on staying at the inn? Bribing someone for information? Not gunna happen unless you have some Cash. Cash can be obtained by many methods including 1. Quest completion 2. Killing monsters 3. Finding it 4. Winning Mini Games. Your cash is tracked by a score displayed on the leaderboard at intervals.

Healing Potion - A horrible tasting potion. Even though it makes you want to throw up, it still manages to restore your HP by a small amount, which is very handy.
20oz Mt. Dew - This delicious beverage has survived the years due to it's awesomeness. Drinking this provides and metalhead with energy to kick out some killer riffs. [a.k.a: Drinking this refills your Inspiration, the meter that lets you cast spells.]
Haywire Amp - "Ahh my amp caught on FIRE! I guess it's useful to throw at enemies." This is an offensive item that can be used to damage nearby enemies for a short time. The effectiveness of this item increases as the power of your guitar increases.
2L Mt. Dew - Same concept as the 20oz Mt. Dew, except this beast refills even more Inspiration. p.s. Metalheads don't need sleep.
Mosh - This item is pretty cool. Basically, you will use it and Mitch will get so pumped with energy from moshing and headbanging that he will be immune to damage for a few seconds.
Stone Figurine - This thing can activate an Alter of Metal Gods.
Repair Kit - Very handy item. This thing takes all of your problems away by removing the 'Broken String' and 'Lost Pick' negative status effects.

Quest Items - These are intangible. There are quite a few of them that will help you complete quests. Some have special Properties that can make your objectives either more difficult or easier to complete.

Spells
As of now, there will be a total of 20 unique spells. They will be divided into 5 categories that follow some Genres of Metal as their theme.

Hair Metal
1. Power Chord: Shoots an energy blast from your guitar to a nearby enemy. This is a very useful skill when you first start using spells, but toward end-game it becomes useless.
2. Hairspray: Refreshes by restoring a small amount of HP and curing 'Lost Pick' status effect.
3. Ballad: Stuns enemies by forcing them to pull their lighter out for the song.
4. Sell Out: This spell throws your cash at monsters. The more cash you have, the more devastating the attack is. Unfortunately, your wallet does not appreciate this spell being used to often.

Power Metal
1. Power Chord2: An even stronger power chord.
2. King of Fools: Creates a clone, which enemies are fooled into attacking.
3. Dragon: Dragons are basically the ultimate symbol of Power Metal. This spell summons a ferocious dragon to wreck your enemy's shit.
4.Epic Solo: Use all your strength to play a solo so epic that it melts your enemy's faces off. Has a 1/6 chance to miss a note, which will cause the spell to fail and you lose all your inspiration.

Thrash Metal
1. Breathe life: There are statues from the Metal Gods that this spell can bring to life. You cannot control them, but they DO fight on your side.
2. Power Chord3: As heavy as power chords get, this has a high chance to make ears bleed.
3. Tornado of Souls: A crazy solo that can either [33% chance] bring all nearby monsters to critical HP or [67% chance] Heal your HP a small amount.
4. Master of Puppets: Your sick riffs captivate the enemy into fighting for you. You gain control of the monsters.

Black Metal
1. Odal: You use your experience with snow and forests to become immune to traps while this spell is in effect.
2. Endless Winter: Plays a riffs that is chilling enough to freeze one nearby enemy in their tracks.
3. Sacrifice: Sacrifices the body of a frozen monster to a dark god, who in return gives you wealth. Enemies must be frozen for you to sacrifice them, and stronger monsters will yield more wealth than weaker ones.
4. Thorns of Crimson Death: Summons Thorns of Crimson to do massive damage.

Death Metal
1. Suicide Nation: Calls forth tormented souls to hurt enemies w/ explosive damage.
2. Storm of Light's Bane: Powerful storm attack that hurts nearby enemies.
3. Millionflame: Powerful flame attack to nearby enemies. This spell has a 1/9 chance to instantly scorch all nearby enemies to death. Otherwise, it just does damage.
4. Heartwork: They kill you... and then come back to life with low HP. You are officially 'too metal for game overs.'


Beasts
And of course it wouldn't be an RPG without wild beasts up for the slaying.

Rabid Wolf - Zergling - A wolf. Nothing special.
Thief - Kerry - They like to steal things.
Mist Spawn - Hydralisk - Creature born from mist.
Fat Beast - Reaver - Slow beast that attacks with scarabs.
Beach Terror - Ultralisk - Pretty scary beast that is strong.

Status effects
To make the gameplay more interesting, I introduce to you: 2 negative AND 2 positive status effects that are pretty intense. These can be inflicted on you by enemies, bosses, or traps.

Status effect#1: Broken String - Basically, one of the strings on your guitar snaps, making it impossible to play solos (Use spells) The item 'Repair Kit' can remove this status effect. The effect will also automatically be removed when the character uses the Guitar Smith or if he prays to an alter of the Metal Gods.

Status effect#2: Lost Pick - This status effect makes it so that you don't gain experience from killing monsters. The item 'Repair Kit' also fixes this. Staying at an inn fixes this status effect because you find a pick under your pillow when you wake up. Keeping this status effect on you is useful to help you complete the Low-Level Challenge.

Status effect#3: Odal - This is the first positive status effect. You get it when you cast the spell 'Odal' >< Figures. Anyway, this status effect makes you immune to the effects of traps. It is useful if you don't want traps to mess up your shit.

Status effect#4: Renewal - This status effect is your best friend, and there are two methods to get in on you. The first is to cast the spell 'Heartwork'. The other method is more risky and it involves your setting off traps hoping for a 1/10 chance that the trap will cast this one you. Oh, basically this status effect is Auto-Life. So you don't die as easy.


Minigames

1.Beast Arena - Jerry loves to have you fight against his pets. These are intense matches, but the prizes are worth it. Jerry will have various beasts for you to attack, including a secret boss if u meet the right conditions =)

2.Chance Beacon - This guy has a contraption set up to try to get money from travelers passing by. Step onto the platform and see if you're lucky enough to win a prize. You don't have very good odds, but with Cash prizes and RELIC OF INSPIRATION up for grabs, some think this minigame is worth the risk. Afterall, it only costs $15 to play.

3.Shooting Range - Shoot down pterodactyls and other such creatures to get a high score and win some cool prizes.

4.Low-Level challenge - How low can you go?

Screenshots















Tributes

AGALLOCH
CHILDREN OF BODOM
METALLICA
MEGADETH
HUMAN ABSTRACT
CANNIBAL CORPSE
DISSECTION
INTO ETERNITY
EDGUY
POISON
INSOMNIUM
ODIOUS MORTEM
SOILWORK
SCAR SYMMETRY
AT THE GATES

...MANY MORE GREAT BANDS!

Post has been edited 15 time(s), last time on Jan 16 2009, 5:13 am by Norm.

Reserved

Also Reserved, What? I plan on having a lot of information.

It looks like you are able to make well-written, interesting dialogue. That alone tells me that this won't flop.

Anyway, good luck. Looks like a huge project, though this is the first one on this scale I've seen that comes packaged with a good writer.

The point of extend terrain is blends. What you seem to have right now (Just looking at the screen shots.) is a lot of sprites and things covering up any extended you have. This is ok with some things, but above all, try to blend it, and if you can't, ask for help in the terrain section. Check out Falkoner's terrain compilation if you haven't already.

Good luck with this.

This looks like it could be really cool. What kind of spellcasting system do you have implemented?

That's instant fail, Good rpgs like spellsword had at least 50 different items.

...somehow, I don't think number of items correlates to how fun a game is O.o

Isn't this based on some Heavy Metal game IRL?

No but how fun is it to do this,

Oh killed a goblin, some gold.
Oh killed a goblin, a shoe.

Oh killed an ogre, some more gold.

Oh killed a wolf, found a bone.

For like the entire game?

When the fuck would you need a shoe or a bone? I'm pretty sure items = guitars, gold, potions, etc. Not pieces of shit.
I'm looking forward to this game, it looks pretty good already!

@ excalibur: I'm really trying to make it blend, I swear. This is my first shot at extended terrain and I assure you that as the map progresses I will pour more effort into making everything pretty.

@killer_kow: It's a two step system (spellcasting) Players move their chooser to one of 5 beacons, and this determines which spell set they will use. After their chooser is on a beacon, they will build units at a starport to cast the spell. Items will be used via Gateway where each build able unit represents one of four item slots in your gig bag.

@piggy: there are more than 6 items really, but these 6 are the most common that you will find yourself carrying around in your gig bag. Typical shit, a healing item, a mana healing item, an offensive item ect. On top of these 6 main items, there are also 3 unique items for your character. Two of them are his guitars (starting guitar, and a later better guitar), and also his wallet. There are also 3 secret items that are called Relics. These act as accessories (Think FF9) that once u obtain them u will receive certain bonuses. Finally, there are many quest items that you cannot use, but you need to get them to complete quests. Also, Goblins? Seriously? My RPG is a step above having goblins.

Oh, there are also Strings you can get to upgrade your guitar, and if you want to count currency as an item, that's something u get too.

@Fortheswarm: No. This is an RPG based on my favorite genre of music and my wishing to know how to play the guitar. The story is 100% from my head and no other sources.

Master Of Puppets spell ftw!

this sort of reminds me of a movie i watched
by Jack Black
He runs away from home after being treated bad
(He was the bad kid tho) cuz the parents are
like holy and religious but Jack Black runs off the
walls and breaks stuff and swears. He runs away from
home and tries to find ppl to help him play the guitar

anyways looks cool and i love the terrain

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 3 2009, 7:41 pm by BlackWolf99.

I personally REALLY HATE Metal. I'm a Classical music sorta guy.

However, I love metal wavs when they're used correctly. And I also love well done rpg's. It says gameplay for 10 hours (wow?).. As long as that doesn't make the gameplay boring, I don't mind.

And the storyline better ROCK (pardon the pun =D)

"Everyone knows that pterodactyls can't stand the screech of a guitar!"

All I have to say is: Good Luck.

This RPG is automatic win. Also win for using pretty simple terrain.

First thing I though by reading your title was like ''Omg! This is gonna be an EPIC fail. You can't make a cool RPG based on Heavy Metal'' and then I started reading your informations and it quite impressed me!
Your idea for Pick and Strings and all this is very nice. Good luck on this ;P (and fix the blocky terrain please)

Haha, I'm glad people are liking my ideas for the most part.

Anyways, I updated the first post. Added new item explanations, Status Effects, and edited the Mini Game section.
Also added a screenshot showing some of today's progress.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 5 2009, 4:06 am by Norm.